Intelligent design is definitely scientific

Dr Carl Wieland, CEO of Answers in Genesis-Australia, said that ‘intelligent design’ is definitely a scientific concept.

‘It uses exactly the same scientific criteria to detect design in living things as scientists use to recognize design in other disciplines: in forensic science, in archaeology, and in NASA’s search for extra-terrestrial intelligence, for example.’

‘I wouldn’t be surprised if the crude efforts by some to stifle debate backfire’, Dr Wieland said. ‘Australians know censorship when they see it.’

Dr Wieland considers that the opponents of intelligent design are mostly not using scientific arguments but emotional ones.

‘I find it amusing that they are even using theological arguments when they point to a particular structure and say, “God wouldn’t have designed it that way,”’ Dr Wieland said. ‘It is becoming clear that some people want the debate quashed because it leads places they don’t want to go. It contradicts their belief system.’

According to Wieland, intelligent design is not connected to any particular religion. ‘It is not a Christian movement and its advocates would not claim it to be. In fact, ideas promoted by some ID leaders contradict biblical teaching (our full position statement on ID can be found at www.answersingenesis.org/idm). Intelligent design deals only with the narrow question of identifying design in living things.’

Wieland thinks intelligent design is an important aspect of the creation/evolution issue, one that has been used by creation ministries for years. ‘But it leaves a lot of questions unanswered, such as why we have disease, suffering, death and extinction.’

‘Intelligent design does not provide an alternative history to evolution so it has no framework for the sciences that deal with history, such as geology, cosmology and evolutionary biology,’ Dr Wieland said. ‘But just because an approach does not address every question people ask does not mean it should be rejected. The matter definitely needs to be debated, and it is great to see the way in which this controversy has raised awareness of the issues.’

Further information: Dr Carl Wieland 0418 724 936

Here is the thing that really surprises me about all of this, it seems to me that I have more faith than the creationists. If there is a creator, I have no problem seeing them creating something as beautiful and complex as evolution. I also don’t have a problem conceiving that while the system appears to be "random", it may actually be driving towards some goal that is outside my comprehension. Basically I figure that if there is a god, s/he is significantly smarter than I am, and is likely to have plans that span time periods that I can’t even start to get my head around.

Now this does preclude the whole seven days, bible as literal word of god thing so I guess I am not throwing that much of a bone to the strict creationists. But you would have to wonder, given all the evidence stacking up about the age of the earth (4.8 billion-ish years) and the extent of the fossil record, isn’t it time to contemplate the possibility that mankind may have written some of the details down wrong, or copied something incorrectly SOMEHWERE along the way?

The Old Testament was written approximately 2,000 - 6,000 years ago during the end of the Stone Age and the beginning of the Bronze Age. At the time most people lived in mud huts, a large community was a couple of thousand people, the world view was that the planet was flat, people lived to about 30 years old and the hight of technology was the donkey and a stone axe.

If you were a loving, caring god how would YOU explain relativity, quantum mechanics and cosmology to those people - and their donkey? Start with something simple I’d say. I mean there is all that fossil evidence, the finches on the Galapagos Islands and the like. You created mankind as a pretty bright bunch, so they‘ll figure out that you wrote things in many places (like the rocks) and in many ways (like interstellar radio waves).

I guess I just have more faith than the ID folks.

Bravecreature - wonderful moniker - inspiring post. I have been thinking the same thing all along and wonder why those who claim they believe in God can't get their head around the idea that evolution, the solar system, the universe and so on are just all a part of the grand design.

I have always found the god described in religious texts to be too narrow and limiting a being.

So, if there is a great creator, s/he is so far beyond our comprehension as to be almost negligible. The way I see it is to simply try to aspire to be the best you can be - oh, and live and let live.

Thank you.

Good point Scout to think about: "the solar system, the universe and so on are just all a part of the grand design." Exactly!

The thing I failed to mention (that 350 word limit got me) is that I am firmly agnostic. I can't know the truth, its too big and complex, so I dont worry myself about what it might be. I just try and do my best in the here and now.

I also cheated a bit, since that post was a cut down version of a longer one on my blog - http://www.bravecreatures.com/blog

Thanks for the posative comments by the way, much appreciated,

R

Philo
If there is a why to life, the universe and everything it is on so vast a scale as to be inconceivable.

Consider the vastness of interstellar space - planet Earth is but a speck of dust.

We are a result of millenia of evolution - our eyes evolved - the story is in the rocks, the pattern in the fossils left behind.

We have evolved intellectually too. We no longer make sacrifices to appease gods or spirits.

We mature and no longer believe in the tooth fairy or santa clause. Nor do we believe in virgin births - technically impossible and immature to think that there is an interventionist god.

There may well be a grand scale plan to the whole damn thing. But whether or not you are a christian or I am a heathen will not make a jot of difference in the overall scheme of things.

All we can do is try to live with compassion and love for others - I don't need a bible to do that.

BraveCreature - I checked out your blog - I especially agree with your statement:

"So here is the thing that I don’t get. As much as I am very comfortable with the theory of evolution, I don’t see any particular conflict between it and the existence of a creating deity. As far as I can see, if a creator can go "poof" and there is a universe, they could just as easily go "poof" and an evolutionary system could be established."

Have been thinking along these lines for a long time.

The reason many christians have difficulty with this idea is that it is difficult to fit in Jesus as the son of god and a personal deity if they accept evolution. I think this is why, in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, they have come up with ID as a sort of mutant 'ism to account for many (nowhere near all) scientific discoveries.

There may well be a grand deity - just that it/she/he isn't quite like the bible tells us so.